*** REGIONAL NEWS FROM WEDNESDAY ***

+ Alaska Airlines: Water from a box? Alaska Airlines swaps single-use plastic bottles for eco-friendly brand, the first in the industry to move completely away from plastic for its water service – will eliminate about 32 million plastic water bottles and 22 million plastics cups per year from Alaska flights

+ Office of Gov. Jay Inslee: Statement on vaccine approval for 5-to 11-year-olds

+ JOLT News: Washington among hotspots for catalytic converter thefts – Thurston County not immune

+ Habitat for Humanity: Give Local early access before November 8.

+ The Chronicle (Centralia): Letter to the Editor – Opposition to Critical Race Theory Isn’t What It Seems

*** NATONAL NEWS FROM WEDNESDAY ***

Salon: A U.S. Military Jury Is Seeking Clemency for a Guantánamo Detainee – “Torture doesn’t work. And the use of it, as well as the cover-up by two administrations and the crude endorsement by a man who would be president, is one of the greatest moral stains on America’s reputation in its long history of moral stains. And this one happened on our watch.”

Truthout: GOP Moans Over Delay on $778 Billion for Defense While Denouncing “Tax-and-Spend” Bill

CNN: Opinion: Why are cops fighting vaccine mandates?

The Washington Post via MSN: Europe’s hottest summer on record would have been ‘almost impossible’ without human-induced climate change. Scientists say it could recur every three years. Ed. note: the U.S. is also in the cross-hairs.

*** POLITICAL NEWS FROM WEDNESDAY ***

NBC News: House Dems add paid family leave back to $1.75T bill on heels of grim Election Day

MSNBC’s The Last Word: Democratic adviser explains why Youngkin didn’t thank Trump for his victory in Virginia

NBC News: GOP’s new playbook – Youngkin’s win in blue Virginia offers Republicans a 2022 road map

MSNBC’s Maddow Blog: McConnell’s flawed case against the Voting Rights Advancement Act – Mitch McConnell’s case against the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is so awful that it’s insulting to Americans’ intelligence.

*** TRUMP NEWS FROM WEDNESDAY ***

The Washington Post via MSN: Trump campaign payments for ‘command centers’ at D.C. hotels could undermine executive privilege claim in Jan. 6 investigation

CNBC on MSN: Trump ally Rudy Giuliani seeks to block feds from getting 3 items of thousands seized under search warrant

The AP via The Seattle Times: Months after raid, review of seized Giuliani files continues